"Efficient balance," Andy Reid called it Friday after the Eagles' ground-driven, 48-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Thanksgiving night, overlooking that, even on some of its best days, his air-friendly offense tends to waste a lot of material.

To those without a point to prove or a religion to defend, that is apparent more weeks than not, and becomes pronounced in close games, when precision tends to be compromised by inspired defenses. A run-first philosophy might look tedious, and be excruciatingly dull for long stretches, but even the smallest drive it generates allows your defense to rest, restock and recalculate, while taking a toll on an opponent that often reaps dividends late.

"I'm not going to sit there and bang my head against the wall by running the Football every snap if I'm not gaining a yard," Reid said on Friday, and the contrast in philosophy with the team the Eagles are playing this Sunday couldn't be clearer.

The Giants love to run big Brandon Jacobs at you over and over again, no matter how well he's doing. His first carry in yesterday's 23-7 victory over Washington - on second-and-10 - went for 2 yards. Two plays later, he carried for 1 yard. He finished with 21 carries for 71 yards, but more than a third of that came from one run he busted for 23 yards.

Every 1 of those yards - often against an eight- or nine-man front - was like a gold coin. Eli Manning found man coverage out there, passed for 305 yards, had a huge day. The defense got long breaks to rest up and recalculate. Thirty-five of the Giants' 71 plays yesterday were runs, and they averaged 2 yards less per carry (3.1) than Washington.

But it was there, it was a threat, and it opened up New York's passing game.

Brian Westbrook ran for 6 yards on his first carry Thursday, gained 22 yards on his first four runs. No head-banging needed. You wonder what would have happened, though, had he been stuffed for 1 or 2 yards like Jacobs was yesterday.

Most of the other scientists from the West Coast laboratories recognize this and have changed their mixes over the years. Mike Holmgren, Jon Gruden, Mike Shanahan - the ones remaining have tempered their approach, run the ball to the point that some maybe have even changed their religion.

Other West Coast scientists - Steve Mariucci, George Seifert, Denny Green - are no longer part of the NFL landscape.

But Reid has kept his recipe pretty much the same, even when his team makes a case for change, as it did Thursday. If the run doesn't work right away, he will "dial up" more passes. If the passing game isn't clicking he will - all together now - "keep firing."

When it works, you get the disparity of a November college basketball score, when Duke uses a school like Georgia Southern as a toothpick. Or a shootout, like they used to have under LaVell Edwards back at BYU.

But here's what seems to jump out at you, at almost everyone but Reid. The Eagles are a team ill-suited to win the tight ones, because their offense is based on big plays more than time management, and because they have trouble running the clock out when they take a lead. Until the very end yesterday, the Giants never led the Redskins by more than 13 points, yet it felt like more. In contrast, the Eagles' early 14-point spread over the Redskins in Week 5 felt like less.

Imagine if Reid were patient enough to take three cracks from the 1-yard line against Baltimore two Sundays ago, instead of throwing on second down. Would the game have turned out differently? Would Kevin Kolb had started Thursday night?

"This is such a business of now ," Reid said Friday, and I agree with him there. What I don't buy is what followed, responding to a "Where's this been all year" question.

"I'm not worried about the past," he said. "I'm focusing on the future here."

But he isn't, really, and that's the cold-water reality that follows even an uplifting game like Thursday's. He likely is playing the same quarterback for these final four games as he has for the last 10 years, running the same plays, using the same approach and schemes as he did when Bill Walsh was a figure in the NFL present, not a gloried name from its

storied past. *

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